Videocapsule endoscopy is useful for the diagnosis of intestinal lymphangiectasia.

Videocapsule endoscopy is useful for the diagnosis of intestinal lymphangiectasia.

Dig Liver Dis. 2006 Sep

Chamouard P,
Nehme-Schuster H,
Simler JM,
Finck G,
Baumann R,
Pasquali JL.

Service d'Hepato-Gastroenterologie et d'Assistance Nutritive, Hopital de Hautepierre, 67098 Strasbourg Cedex, France. Patrik.Chamouard@chru-strasbourg.fr

Keywords: Intestinal lymphangiectasia; Lymphatic; Protein-losing enteropathy; Push enteroscopy; Videocapsule endoscopy

We study two authentic cases of protein-losing enteropathy, the diagnosis of which was facilitated using Given M2A videocapsule endoscopy. The first case corresponded to a primary intestinal lymphangiectasia confirmed by jejunum biopsies and the second one to a protein-losing enteropathy with lymphatic abnormalities secondary to a chronic constrictive pericarditis.

In the first case, the mucosa of jejunum presented with a diffuse oedematous aspect, whitish villi, white curved lines probably related to submucosal dilated lymphatics and lacteal juice.

In the second case, capsule endoscopy showed oedematous aspect of jejunum mucosa associated with white curved lines similar to those observed in the first case.

Videocapsule endoscopy is useful in cases of protein-losing enteropathy to identify presence of intestinal lymphangiectasia and to specify their localisation after ruling out other disorders liable to induce protein-losing gastrointestinal syndrome.

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